Various types of lighting devices have been used to illuminate objects particularly intended to be see, such as items of furnishings and of art, as well as housing and store interiors. Oftentimes such a source of light is so positioned as to be generally non-obvious, such as in a recessed location. A search ordered on such arrangements produced the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,767,262; 2,714,712; 3,187,172; 3,218,448; 3,527,933; 3,582,868; 4,158,221; 4,164,009; 4,521,838; and 4,544,991.
Many such prior art devices included extended strips of electrically conductive material, such strips carrying spaced, lamp-receiving terminals, such devices creating a low-profile, linear lighting system. Each such conductive strip, however, must apparently be individually linked to a source of low voltage current. In lighting a multi-shelved structure, an excess of wiring is encountered. It was to simplify such a multi-shelf lighting mechanism that Applicant's invention was developed.